Govt Won't Impose Restrictions On Laptop Imports, Dixon Shares To Be In Focus

India will not impose the licensing requirement on imports of laptops and computers but will only monitor their inbound shipments, a top government official said.

The remarks assume significance as the government in August announced that these products, including laptops, tablets and computers, would be put under licensing regime from November 1, according to a PTI report.

"On laptops, we are of the view that there are no restrictions as such. We are only saying that somebody who is importing these laptops, have to be under close watch, so that we can look at these imports.

"It is basically monitoring, which we are doing. It has nothing to do with restrictions as such," Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters here.

Explaining further, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said there will be an import management system, which will come into place from November 1.

The work is in progress and hopefully it will be in place before October 30, he said.

The government in August imposed import restrictions on laptops, computers (including tablet computers), micro computers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines with a view to boost domestic manufacturing and cut imports from countries like China, added the PTI report.

Soon after the move was announced on August 3, shares of leading Indian contract manufacturers like Optiemus Infracom and Dixon Technologies witnessed a strong rally on BSE. Dixon Technologies shares soared over 7% and Optiemus Infracom jumped 10% on August 3.
Current market price of Dixon Technologies stock on BSE is Rs 5335.85 per share with intraday gain of 0.85%. Current market price of Optiemus Infracom Ltd share is Rs 303.80 apiece on BSE with intraday gain of 0.93%.
After this notification, IT hardware industry had flagged concerns.
India already has an import monitoring system for certain products like steel, coal and paper. The licensing conditions on imports were put on the grounds of security and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products, according to a PTI report.
According to a report by think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India is critically dependent on China for day-to-day use and industrial products like mobile phones, laptops, components, solar cell modules, and integrated circuits, reported PTI.
The government has taken several steps to boost domestic manufacturing of electronic items such as rolling out of the production-linked incentive scheme and increasing customs duties on the number of electronic components.
India imports about $7-8 billion worth of these goods every year.